(Twenty-ninth Sunday of the Year (B): This homily was given on October 19, 1997 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Hebrews 4: 14-16.)

"The struggle to know and understand God."

The following are some ‘letters to God’ written by young children. These were sent to me via e-mail earlier this week.

From Jane: "Dear God, In school they told us what you do. Who does it when you’re on vacation?"

From Anita: "Dear God, Is it true that my father won’t get into heaven if he uses his "bowling words" in the house?"

From Jane: "Dear God, Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don’t you just keep the ones you have?"

From Joyce: "Dear God, Thank you for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy."

From Bruce: "Dear God, Please send me a pony. I never asked for anything before. You can look it up."

From Jane: "Dear God, What does it mean you are a ‘jealous God?’ I thought you had everything."

From Darla: "Dear God, Did you really mean, ‘Do unto others as they do unto you?’ Because if you did, I’m gonna fix my brother!"

From Tom: "Dear God, Why is Sunday school on Sunday? I thought it was supposed to be a day of rest."

From Larry: "Dear God, Maybe Cain and Abel wouldn’t kill each other so much if they had their own rooms. It works with my brother."

From Nan: "Dear God, I bet it’s very hard for you to love all of everybody in the whole world. There are only 4 people in our family and I can never do it."

And finally, "Dear God, We read that Thomas Edison made light. But in school they said you did it. So I bet he stoled your idea." (Stoled there is spelled s-t-o-l-e-d.)

My brothers and sisters, some of those letters are rather amusing, but behind them all is something very important and very serious: the struggle to know and understand God. What does it mean to say that God loves everybody? What are the effects of sin? What do I need to do in order to get into heaven? Why doesn’t God always answer my prayers like I think he should? Those are some of the very serious and very deep theological issues that these little children are raising in their letters. And these issues need to be addressed with them--first and foremost by their parents, who are their primary religious educators. Because if these young people don’t have their questions about God answered, they will never develop good, healthy relationships with the Lord. They’ll end up like many adults today who think of God as the big policeman in the sky, who makes bad things happen to good people, and who keeps us from having fun in life. With all of our education, that is the skewed image of God that many sophisticated people of the 1990’s have. No wonder they don’t take their relationships with the Lord seriously. Who would want a personal relationship with that kind of Supreme Being? I sure wouldn’t!

I mention this today because of the teaching contained in our second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 4, verses 14-16. This is not a long text of Scripture, but it’s packed with insights--important insights about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. If we truly embrace these insights, we will hunger for a deeper relationship with the Lord. But if we don’t understand them, the opposite will be true.

"We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God; let us hold fast to our profession of faith. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet never sinned. So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and favor and to find help in time of need."

I decided the other day to take a survey over in our school. I put together a series of 6 questions based on this text from Hebrews. I wanted to see how many of our students understood the basic truths of the faith contained in this passage. The results were very interesting, and quite frankly they’re probably very similar to the results I would have gotten if I had surveyed a group of Catholic adults. The first question I asked these young people in grades 5, 6 and 7 was this one: Is Jesus God? 66% gave the correct answer, "Yes." But that means that a third answered incorrectly and said "No, he’s not God." This text from Hebrews tells us to "hold fast to our profession of faith." In our Profession of Faith (the Nicene Creed) we say that Jesus Christ is "God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God." Obviously some Catholics don’t pay attention to the words of the Creed, even though they say them at least once a week.

The second question: Is Jesus human? 92% said "Yes" and got that one right.

The third question was a difficult one, although 32% still answered correctly: Is Jesus a human person? The right answer is "No." Jesus is a divine person, the second person of the Blessed Trinity who took on a human nature 2,000 years ago. That one was a bit unfair, I’ll admit it. In fact, when I was a student at Providence College I had that question on an exam and I got it wrong. Of course, sometimes it’s a blessing in disguise when you get an answer wrong on a test, because then you never, ever forget the right answer.

The fourth question: Was Jesus ever tempted to do things that were wrong? Praise God, 85% answered "Yes" and got that one right. As the author of Hebrews tells us today, Jesus was tempted in every way that we are.

Unfortunately, our young people were not so successful with question number 5: Did Jesus ever commit a sin? Almost 30% said, "Yes." Wrong. As the author of Hebrews reminds us, although he experienced every temptation we do, Jesus never sinned. When we went over the survey afterward, some of the students brought up the incident of Jesus cleansing the Temple. They thought that this was the one time that our Lord had sinned. I had to give them a brief teaching at that point on the difference between righteous anger and sinful anger.

The final question was a multiple choice--or perhaps for some a multiple guess question: What was the most important thing Jesus did? a.) He taught us about love. b.) He died on the Cross. c.) He healed people who were sick. Praise God, 95% answered correctly and chose "b"-- "He died on the Cross."

I said a few moments ago: If we embrace these insights from Hebrews 4, we will certainly hunger for a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. Why? Because we will understand who he is, what he’s done for us in the past, and what he wants to do for us now and in the future. We will understand, first of all, that he has conquered sin and eternal death by his high priestly act of offering himself on the Cross. But not only that, we will also realize that he understands us in our trials and sufferings--because he experienced the human condition himself. (He was true God and true man, as we say in our Profession of Faith). Furthermore, we will realize that he understands how difficult it is to resist temptation, since he was tempted in every way that we are. But we will also believe in the power of Jesus to help us do what’s right. Since he overcame every temptation that he faced, we will realize that he can and will help us to do the same.

This is why the author of Hebrews ends this passage by saying, "So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and favor and to find help in time of need." In other words, "Since we know all this about Jesus--since we understand these things about the Lord, let’s go to him often, in complete confidence and faith, in order to receive all that he has for us." And let’s begin doing that now--today--at this Mass!